This week, I was reminded again when it comes to rescue—you can’t predict anything.
Or, at least, I can’t predict anything.
The wild ride began last Wednesday when Continue reading “A Puppy Hero”
Tag: fosterdogs
A Designer Dog Looking for his Designer Family
There was a time when we had two, even three new fosters each month, but for the last few years, it’s been one long-term foster after another (Gala, Flannery, Daisy…) and a few puppy litters. This weekend we had planned to welcome a much anticipated foster dog from Alabama – Houdini, whom I met while visiting Walker County Animal Shelter where OPH partners with RUFF to support the shelter and rescue dogs.
That reunion has been postponed because transport for Houdini and the other RUFF dogs fell through at the last moment. Hopefully, he will catch his freedom ride at the end of this month and we’ll welcome him then.
Meanwhile, Fanny was in need of a playmate as Flannery and Gracie easily tire of her endless puppy-like energy, so I Continue reading “A Designer Dog Looking for his Designer Family”
Here in This Kettle with the Other Frogs
My world revolves around dogs.
They eat up every extra minute in my day. I probably knew that, but it was painfully obvious last Thursday. It was just me and Gracie. The house was so very quiet and weirdly still. I had time on my hands. I even cooked a real dinner.
How is that possible you ask? Continue reading “Here in This Kettle with the Other Frogs”
Our Special Visitor
We have a very special guest with us this week. (As if four dogs wasn’t enough!)
Oreo and I go way back to the day I met him in a shelter in North Carolina, where he’d been living on and off for over a year. He’d been adopted out twice, but neither adopter chose to neuter him or bring him inside, so he ran off (as unneutered male dogs are want to do) and Animal Control returned him to the shelter each time.
There was something special about Oreo—the way he looked at us, the way he leaned into his kennel fence desperate for your touch, and how he’d hold your hand through the fence.
It was a long and winding road from that day Continue reading “Our Special Visitor”
Fostering Dogs May Require a Sacrifice (or Ten)
You make many sacrifices when you foster dogs. That’s the truth of it. The sacrifices are generally worth it, but they’re a reality.
I think it’s expected that we make sacrifices for causes or events or creatures that are important to us—maybe that’s how we know what’s important to us — we don’t mind the sacrifices (much).
I’m continually amazed at what people will sacrifice for their pets, and humbled by what other foster parents will do for their foster dogs. I definitely do not have the market cornered on suffering or stress endured at the hands (paws) of my foster dogs.
Thelma is a joy. A love. An absolute sweetheart. She rocked the K9&Kds event today, charming everyone, young and old. Watch how she handles the attention of the children at our Fourth of July party (fireworks did not phase her, btw, more evidence of her easy-going and tolerant soul).
Note: This is a lot for a foster dog (or any dog) to not just tolerate, but to invite. Thelma followed these two around all night, thriving on their ‘attention,’ but she (and the children) were supervised.
As evidenced, Thelma is quite a remarkably rare dog.
But there is a dark side to Thelma…. Continue reading “Fostering Dogs May Require a Sacrifice (or Ten)”
The State of Our Pack
I owe you an update.
From my perspective, I’ve been to the moon and back this past month emotionally. Between losing my precious pup Frankie and witnessing all that I saw in Tennessee, our foster dogs have been an afterthought, at least in terms of writing. Yet they’ve been here all along demanding care and attention, an anchor preventing me from being washed away by the sadness. So here’s what’s happening with all of them. Continue reading “The State of Our Pack”
A Mama’s Instinct
The natural instincts of animals are remarkable. Spending so many of my hours with animals in the course of a lifetime, I’ve come to respect this, but I’ve also come to wonder at length about human instinct and whether we are compelled to follow it the way animals do, but that is decidedly a topic for another post.
A week ago today, I had just finished a post about Thelma’s arrival and the happenings in this foster house, when Continue reading “A Mama’s Instinct”
Diary of a Rescue Weeks Eight and Nine: Separation Sometimes Makes You Stronger
I really hope I won’t be writing, Diary of a Rescue Week Fifty-Two, some day.
Daisy is still here, but she is ready to go. She is healthy and happy, and while she still needs a slow introduction to women and won’t go near men, I think she is ready.
Whatever happened to this dog to create such a deeply-rooted fear of men is not something she will simply get over. I don’t know if she ever will, but I do think she will make a wonderful best friend and awesome canine companion for some lucky woman.
As she has gained her confidence, her Continue reading “Diary of a Rescue Weeks Eight and Nine: Separation Sometimes Makes You Stronger”
Big Dog Lessons
I hope I didn’t take on more than I can handle.
Last night it seemed overwhelming, but today in the sunshiny energy of a new morning, it seems, well, maybe not totally doable, but somewhere in the realm of possibility.
We have a new foster dog. And he’s Continue reading “Big Dog Lessons”
If I Never Fostered Dogs….
I’ve always liked dogs.
Liked them.
I wasn’t necessarily a ‘dog person.’ We always had a dog when I was growing up. A steady stream of strays and dogs that just happened into our lives. Truly, I never gave it much thought. I liked cats better. Especially once I hit young adulthood and lived in an apartment.
But now, somehow, dogs have taken over my life. My days, really my hours, revolve around dogs. Currently, we have four here at the house. Two are permanent residents and two are foster dogs only here for a spell awaiting the moment when their forever families find them.
As I write, Continue reading “If I Never Fostered Dogs….”
Another Good Dog™ 